Rakshasa: Hidden in Plain Sight

Real quick: fuck you Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast. Their changes to D&D’s OGL (open game license) is a blatant insult to the community that threatens the stability of the game. If you want to know more, check out this video by YongYea.
Anyways, let’s talk about monsters now.

Slay me once, shame on you. Slay me twice, shame on me.

Rakshasa Maxim

That sounds awfully chill for such a vengeful bastard of a monster.

Lore: Eternal Vengeance

Delicacy and misdirection are the primary weapons of conquest utilized by the rakshasa. These evil spirits masquerade as nobility or rich merchants in order to place themselves in a position of power. Few have ever seen their true forms. Even fewer have lived to tell the tale.

Long ago, powerful devils within the Nine Hells created a dark ritual to free their spirits from their physical forms, thus creating the rakshasas. Once they slip into the Material Plane, they’ll move with the most extreme caution in order to keep itself secret.

To die in the Material Plane is to send a rakshasa back down to the Nine Hells. Once there, it must endure a long wait for its body to reform. All the while, it stews in its memories, planning vengeance against whoever wronged it. Should their original target escape or die, they’ll target their family, friends, or even their descendants. To make an enemy of a rakshasa is to make an enemy for life. Only by killing it within the Nine Hells itself can one be forever rid of it.

For such little lore, this has a surprising amount of depth and potential! Perhaps the players are haunted by a vengeful rakshasa across the campaign and they need to find a way to get rid of it. Maybe it’s an NPC with this problem and they need to protect them. Or you could craft a murder mystery about a haunted family, wherein the players dive deeper and deeper into the family history to uncover the truth. There are a ton of fun options here!

Design: Wait, why is it a furry?

What an incredible design. Whenever I think of ‘evil spirit from hell’, I naturally think of a lion in noble clothing. It just makes sense!

With the basic premise of ‘shapeshifting immortal vengeful spirit from hell’, you’d think you’d come up with some really cool stuff. Maybe some kind of flaming shadow hidden beneath a normal creature’s form. Or some kind of twisted devil. Or a wise old man with dark, blazing eyes. The sky is the limit!

What did we get? A lion. It’s just a well-dressed furry!

Is that a bad thing? Not really. Honestly, I really like the idea of an anthropomorphic nobleman. I ain’t a furry, that just screams ‘fun fantasy’ to me.

But does it scream ‘immortal spirit of evil and vengeance from the Nine Hells?’ Not in the slightest. Good as this design is, it doesn’t fit the monster at all. It honestly feels like someone on the team accidentally swapped the designs.

Stats: Claws and Curses

A rakshasa is a fairly durable monster. Their AC isn’t monstrous, but it ain’t nothing to sneeze at, and their HP is pretty high. Moreover, they’re completely immune to all non-magical melee damage. Sorry Barbarians, but these guys are ready for you. It’s also got Limited Magic Immunity, making it harder to detect with magic and giving it advantage on all magic-related saving throws.

However, they do have one hyper-specific weakness. If they take piercing damage from magic weapons wielded by good creatures, it does double damage. That’s right! We’ve finally found a monster where the player’s alignment actually plays a part in the fight!

Sure, it’s in the most ultra-specific way possible, but it is there!

This guy also has magic! It ain’t the longest spell list ever, but it is indeed a spell list. Those spells are:

• At will: detect thoughts, disguise self, mage hand, minor illusion
• 3/day each: charm person, detect magic, invisibility, major image, suggestion
• 1/day each: dominate person, fly, plane shift, true seeing

Finally, we have its primary form of attack: it’s claws. On their own, they’re not that dangerous. However, should the victim be hit, they’ll be placed under a curse. Every time they take a short or long rest, they’re haunted by horrible dreams and gain no benefits from the rest. This lasts until a spell similar to remove curse is used.

Does that do anything for the fight itself? No. But having lasting consequences after the fight is pretty good for campaign content!

This makes for a great fight! Dealing with its various spells is tricky, and the alignment thing can make for a fun twist. More importantly, the curse effect adds a layer of consequence to the fight that the party needs to deal with afterwards, which only further encourages creative problem solving.

Placement

All in all, this is a strong monster. It’s design doesn’t work for me, sure. But it’s excellent lore and stats more than make up for that!

With all that in mind, the Rakshasa is going to #69 (heh heh) on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Mind Flayer
4. Dragon Turtle
5. Mummy/Mummy Lord
6. Nagas (all three of ’em)
7. Green Dragons
8. Red Dragons
9. Blue Dragons
10. Black Dragons
11. White Dragons
12. Silver Dragons
13. Couatl
14. Behir
15. Aboleth
16. Sea Hag
17. Lamia
18. Bronze Dragons
19. Brass Dragons
20. Copper Dragons
21. Gold Dragons
22. Chuul
23. Kuo-Toa
24. Gibbering Mouther
25. Kraken
26. Intellect Devourer
27. Chimera
28. Death Knight
29. Fomorian
30. Bone Devil
31. Dracolich
32. Faerie Dragon
33. Gelatinous Cube
34. Lich
35. Peryton
36. Orcs (all four of ’em)
37. Magmin
38. Kobold
39. Kenku
40. Hobgoblins
41. Night Hag
42. Green Hag
43. Black Pudding
44. Ankheg
45. Hook Horror
46. Oni
47. Purple Worm
48. Storm Giant
49. Hill Giant
50. Empyrean
51. Efreeti
52. Grimlock
53. Minotaur
54. Dao
55. Cloud Giant
56. Manticore
57. Drow (all four of ’em)
58. Shadow Demon
59. Modrons (all five of ’em)
60. Marilith
61. Drider
62. Aarackockra
63. Azer
64. Demilich
65. Spectator
66. Gray Ooze
67. Ochre Jelly
68. Hydra
69. Rakshasa <—————-
70. Marid
71. Harpy
72. Werejackal
73. Otyugh
74. Half-Dragon
75. Cambion
76. Fire Giant
77. Nothic
78. Pixie
79. Animated Armor
80. Banshee
81. Basilisk
82. Yochlol
83. Bulette
84. Cloaker
85. Darkmantle
86. Doppelganger
87. Ghoul and Ghast
88. Ettin
89. Medusa
90. Pit Fiend
91. Erinyes
92. Chain Devil
93. Bearded Devil
94. Barbed Devil
95. Spined Devil
96. Ice Devil
97. Mimic
98. Djinni
99. Merrow
100. Nalfeshnee
101. Glabrezu
102. Chasme
103. Grell
104. Barlgura
105. Horned Devil
106. Balor
107. Shadow Dragon
108. Myconids (all four of ’em)
109. Piercer
110. Werebear
111. Lizardfolk
112. Vrock
113. Dretch
114. Pseudodragon
115. Gnolls (all three)
116. Goristro
117. Hezrou
118. Manes
119. Quaggoth
120. Frost Giant
121. Weretiger
122. Werewolf
123. Duergar
124. Quasit
125. Dryad
126. Flumph
127. Goblin
128. Nightmare
129. Wereboar
130. Wererat
131. Githyanki
132. Owlbear
133. Planetar
134. Imp
135. Ogres/Half-ogres
136. Clay Golem
137. Flameskull
138. Displacer Beast
139. Carrion Crawler
140. Githzerai
141. Grick
142. Invisible Stalker
143. Rug of Smothering
144. Bugbear Chief
145. Bugbear
146. Flesh Golem
147. Vine Blight
148. Twig Blight
149. Needle Blight
150. Mephits (all six of ’em)
151. Bullywug
152. Hellhound
153. Ettercap
154. Gas Spore
155. Cockatrice
156. Lemure
157. Homonculus
158. Merfolk
159. Solar
160. Deva
161. Gorgon
162. Hippogriff
163. Griffon
164. Cyclops
165. Centaur
166. Ghost
167. Pegasus
168. Fire Elemental
169. Water Elemental
170. Air Elemental
171. Stone Giant
172. Deep Gnome
173. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
174. Iron Golem
175. Stone Golem
176. Earth Elemental
177. Galeb Duhr
178. Helmed Horror
179. Flying Sword
180. Crawling Claw
181. Violet Fungus
182. Shrieker
183. Gargoyle